Electric Cars – Do you have one?

Time to go electric?

Electric Cars have never really got me excited and, as such, when choosing a new car an electric vehicle was never even a consideration. This was for no real reason other than ignorance. I didn’t really understand them. However, last year my Sister bought one and I was really quite impressed. She bought the Mercedes B-Class and it looked really good, was lovely to drive and they no longer needed to make endless expensive trips to the petrol station. A government grant off the list price of the car was an added bonus.

More importantly it was good for the environment. In an age where we are starting to see the negative effects that poor decisions and lack of awareness is having on our planet it is important for us to do our bit and act now. This will help slow the damage and hopefully allow us all to work towards the day that the tables turn and the healing begins.

By the time our children get older electric cars, solar panels and an individual being aware of their carbon footprint will be the norm.A perfect example of this is recycling. Like the majority of the country we recycle all our household use. My Children have never known a life when we didn’t recycle. This is second nature to them. We often get asked what bin does this go in? But they never contemplate simply putting everything in the waste bin. They would never think to throw their old clothes away, instead they put them in a charity pile. We’re thankfully starting to a reach a point where recycling is the norm, something we all do without even thinking. Electric cars and using renewable clean energy is next on the agenda.

My Sister’s car was an eye opener and it definitely made us more aware of them. The only problem we had was that, as a family, we go on a lot of car adventures around the UK. My husband also occasionally travels long distance for work. So we had concerns with regards to the logistics of having to stop and find charging points and the inconvenience that this could cause, the so called “range anxiety”. However, we’ve now reached a point where many electric cars are capable of between 200 and 300 miles with companies like Tesla pushing this even further. In other words we are now reaching a point whereby EVs are offering the same range as some petrol equivalents.

The other main cause for concern was time to charge and the availability of charge points across the UK. However, charge points are being added daily and manufacturers are constantly evolving the technology to reduce charge time. For example, Porsche has recently released the Taycan with an 800 volt DC fast-charging system that makes it now possible to get to ~80% charge within 20 minutes with some charge points. Furthermore, development continues apace with further successful tests to achieve ~80% charge within 3 minutes!

Government Initiatives

With the government introducing the incentive of zero benefit in kind tax for company car drivers who choose pure electric vehicle coming into force April 2020, it is definitely becoming a very appealing and more accessible option for people. It also highlights the steps the government are taking to tackle climate crisis. It is serious.

Also there are some seriously stylish electric cars out there and once I started looking it was hard to stop. Previously many have been cost prohibitive for normal people (even with the government incentives). However, the recent introduction of cars like the Tesla Model 3 have started to address this. Since preaching to my husband about the importance of this and the government incentives offered he now has is heart set on the Porsche Taycan as his next car . I admire his optimism and, whilst I agree it is absolutely stunning, he needs to keep dreaming!

EV Charge Points

NES are a leading approved OLEV installer within the North West area who are passionate about reducing Climate Change. We are more than happy to help and provide a no-obligation quotation for your home EV charge point. You may even be eligible to apply for the EV Home Charging Scheme which offers a grant of up to £500.

Furthermore, NES are an approved Solar panel installer which, inline with our passion for Climate Change reduction, is a service we are extremely excited about and actively promote. Why not have your EV charge point and solar panels installed at the same time to help power your journeys from the sun. You may be thinking, solar panels within the UK, what’s the point of that!? However, they are much much more effective than you may think.

Why not save the planet and your wallet, renewable energy has never looked better. I’m certainly running out of excuses not to go electric.